Spare

When Princess Diana wanted to tell her side of history, she had to speak through Andrew Morton in Diana: Her True Story (1992). Thirty-one years later, her youngest son, Harry, is traveling the same path but courageously putting his name on the project (assisted by ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer). Even further, he reads the absolutely captivating 15.5-hour unabridged audiobook. Listeners are literally getting the inside scoop on the royal family as Prince Harry tells his story, in his own words and with his own voice. The narration perfectly matches the text, written with disarming candor and a sly sense of humor. Listeners can hear the smile in the prince’s voice when he mutters asides. But when he’s recounting the night his father woke him to tell him his mother had been killed in a car accident, the retelling is heartbreaking in its restraint. There are not a lot of vocal acrobatics—members of the royal family have been raised and trained to never show emotion in public. This eye-opening memoir is both historical and openheartedly personal.